Ex-TV weatherman Fred Talbot found GUILTY of indecent assault on two young boys

FORMER television weatherman Fred Talbot has been found guilty of indecently assaulting two teenage boys.

fred talbotCAVENDISH/GETTY/MEN

Fred Talbot has been found guilty in court today

Talbot, 65, took advantage of the young boys during his time as a teacher more than 30 decades ago in the 1970s.

He had faced 10 counts of indecently assaulting five boys between the late 1960s and the early 1980s, but was cleared of eight counts at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court.

The jury found him guilty of assaulting two boys but cleared him of assaults on the remaining three youngsters.

Talbot appeared passive as he was today convicted for his sickening crimes and looked slightly surprised when he was told he was to be remanded in custody.

During his trial, the court heard how Talbot was "obsessed" with teenage boys throughout his teaching career and "could not help himself" around them while drunk.

Prosecutor Neil Usher had described the fallen ITV's This Morning star - who often appeared on a floating weather map - as "a weak man" and a "chancer – one of these men who regularly and repeatedly tries it on with his intended victim as often as he can".

Both of Talbot's victims described being abused during school canal barge trips in the Cheshire area.

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Talbot was today found guilty of two counts of indecent assault

The first victim, who thought he was 14 at the time, told the court how he was "quite drunk" after Talbot had brought some beers back from a pub.

Talbot had then asked some of the pupils to pretend they were girls and lie on top of each other as photographs were taken.

Following the "orgy" he said Talbot then performed a sex act on him in a makeshift double bed.

He said: "He said this is natural and this is how men touch other men, because I didn't know what was going on."

The following morning, Talbot told him never to tell anyone about the incident or the "orgy" because it would be their "secret".

The second victim, who also thought he was 14 years of age at the time, was abused on another barge trip in similar circumstances.

He described how the boys would take turns to sleep in Talbot's bed and when it was his turn, the former teacher "started talking to me about sexual stuff".

Talbot then began to indecently assault him - to which the schoolboy told him to stop.

He said: "I was a very naive child and I couldn't really understand it."

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Talbot could face up to four years in jail

Among the prosecution witnesses during the trial were Stone Roses singer Ian Brown, who described how Talbot had shown pupils in one of his classes what was "probably a gay porn film".

The star said the former teacher also set his class homework to "pleasure themselves".

He told the court: "It was only a few years later I realised it was probably a gay porn film. It wasn't a sex education film."

He added: "It was years later I realised it was wrong to show us that film."

Talbot's teaching career came to "an abrupt end" in May 1984 following an indecent proposal he made to two pupils at his home, the court heard.

He is said to have offered his bed to the 15-year-old boys before telling them to "make sure you leave room for me in the middle".

He had remained quiet on why he had resigned from Altrincham Grammar as his time in showbusiness began to take off.

The former weatherman's barrister Suzanne Goddard QC yesterday suggested that her client's "career has effectively ended" regardless of the outcome of his trial.

Following the case, it was revealed how Fred Talbot kept a diary where he wrote of his lust for young boys.

The disgraced weatherman marked some entries with asterisks - which he had told officers were references to panic attacks, but later confessed to his lawyers that they denoted his sexual encounters.

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Talbot on a school canal barge trip in the mid 1970s

fred talbotPA

Talbot on a school canal barge trip in the mid 1970s

In a diary extract dated February 4 1969, when he was beginning his teaching career, he wrote: "Do I really know where I am going.

"I am probing in a world of darkness. What I am doing with the kids means a lot to me, but it may be the wrong thing. I find my mind is never at rest. I am in conflict about many things.

"Teaching will not make me rich, is that important. What is more interesting than a smoking, swearing and copulating 15-year-old."

In an entry on April 10 1984 he spoke of his hope of turning his life around.

He wrote: "I have made many mistakes in my life but I now need a break and the weather job will certainly offer me the chance."

Talbot had been accused of abusing four pupils at Altrincham Grammar School where he taught biology, and a pupil at a school in Gateshead whom Talbot met while at teacher training college.

He had denied that anything sexual or inappropriate occurred between himself and the Altrincham pupils, while he insisted that any sexual activity with the Gateshead pupil during his teacher training only happened when the boy turned 16.

He was today cleared of indecently assaulting the Gateshead boy and two Altrincham schoolboys.

In a statement, Altrincham Grammar School for Boys said: "These awful events took place over 30 years ago and naturally our thoughts go out to those former pupils who were subjected to this abuse.

"We are confident that our present pupils and their parents know that the school is totally committed to ensuring the safety of our students and staff at all times and that these historic offences have no bearing on the school's outstanding reputation today."

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One of Talbot's diary entries from 1969

Talbot's career in showbusiness began in 1984 when he presented on Granada Reports, a local news programme in North West England.

He remained a regular reporter there until becoming a weatherman for This Morning on ITV in 1988.

From then on, his career continued to soar and in 1998 he was named 'Weatherman of the year' at the Annual International Weather Festival in Paris.

In 2010 and 2011, he appeared as a weather forecaster on ITV's Daybreak programme.

Talbot was today remanded in custody for sentencing on 13 March where he could face up to four years in jail.

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